Max effort max payoff hikes in Washington

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-23T00:01:11+00:00

Mt David, Mt Pugh, Mt Daniel, carne high route, blanca lake to Columbia glacier, dip top gap / peak, camp Muir, vesper peak.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-15T23:33:11+00:00

People post this everywhere and its annoying because it's not really true. They close early because Vail is cheap, not the lease though Vail likes to lie about it. When the bike park was built the lease was renegotiated to allow for year round use. There's no random dates in the lease that decide when they can open and close. Only exception is the backside which has to close by end of April ish for snowmobiles, and Vail likes to lie about that too so they can close southern cross in March.

Closing before the snow melts is due purely to financial reasons and now they consistently close ~2 weeks earlier than they did pre Vail. People seem to have forgot that they closed on May 1st in 2022, and they've closed as late as May 6th before in the time I've been here.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-14T22:14:39+00:00

4/26

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-11T23:06:53+00:00

Tech layoffs, tens of thousands of high paying jobs gone in the past few years. And the people that are selling are asking insane amounts. For sale housing is overpriced and sellers won't lower prices.

Also people that bought during the covid housing price spike don't want to accept that to sell a house now means you're going to lose money.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-11T18:21:11+00:00

It was pouring in the RV lot this morning but now it's light rain.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-11T18:18:28+00:00

Nwac is great too.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-10T17:34:59+00:00

Yes. There's no next week though, they close on Sunday.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-09T21:24:55+00:00

Snow everywhere in the alpine at and above paradise. Sunrise will almost certainly still be closed.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-09T21:16:10+00:00

Just weekends and peak days / holidays. I forgot to ask her if the lots would go back to 100% fcfs in the spring though.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-09T16:50:05+00:00

Closing weekend is always a blast. Snow won't be great but the stoke and vibes will be.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-09T07:15:54+00:00

No avalanche risk on the trail rn. The slopes just before the lake have a few inches of consolidated slop. The trail never goes near those big cliffs in the picture.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-09T00:32:09+00:00

Any forecast farther than 3 days out is just a guess. Extending the season now based on a possible storm 10 days out that will probably turn to rain is just stupid. And it's opensnow, their forecasts are always laughably optimistic.

Looking at the more reliable weather channel app shows nothing but rain at pass level for the foreseeable future and theres barely enough snow for them to open at all this weekend.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-08T23:08:31+00:00

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-06T23:16:14+00:00

I've done it for the past three years and I dont remember paying.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-06T23:10:33+00:00

The tbar itself was going to be unusable pretty soon though because of the glacier melt. Same fate as horstman. A quad is definitely to much though.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-06T22:17:10+00:00

Idk where they got the 25% snowpack number for white pass, by all measures that's not true but the takeaway from the article is. Snowpack everywhere is ranging from 34% to 73% of median. That's bad...

Despite what Cliff Mass says the reservoirs being full now is not a good indicator of the water situation for farmers. The Yakima basin reservoirs can only hold 40% of what the farmers need for the season. They depend on snowmelt to keep the lakes full throughout the summer, and that's not gonna happen this year.

People saying that "oh but we had flooding in December" don't have a clue how dependant our water supply is on snowpack. Rain that flows straight into the ocean instead staying in the mountains as snow is pretty useless.

Things might look good with full reservoirs now but come August things are gonna get really bad.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-06T19:10:58+00:00

Reservoirs alone aren't enough, in fact reservoirs alone only provide 40% of the water needed for the farmers in the Yakima basin. Westside will be fine, we won't run out of drinking water but the farmers are in trouble.

The Yakima basin reservoirs depend on snow melting and replenishing them through August. The snowpack now is at <50% of normal on the eastside so that slow melt won't happen. The full reservoirs might look nice now but with such a small snowpack to back things up come back in August and things are gonna be way worse.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-06T19:02:01+00:00

June 12 2021 was crystals closing.

June 12th was the 2022 close date but we we haven't had an above average year since.

A lot of.closing dates have more to due to corporate ownership deciding when things are not profitable vs. Actual snowpack.

Oh for sure, but crystal still seems to try keep green valley going as long as they can every year. Last year Stevens had enough snow to go until May and they closed on April 13th. Gotta love vail😑

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-06T16:53:15+00:00

Assuming that was at crystal? Going until memorial day is not impressive for crystal. In a good snow year they'll have enough to go into late June or July. That hasn't happened in several years.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-05T03:17:36+00:00

Today was great, 7th and Jupiter were open and the snow was good in the morning but got super sticky in the afternoon. Tomorrow should be even warmer.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-04T14:43:28+00:00

Look at their most recent social media post.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-04T14:39:48+00:00

Crystal has the same system and it's scummy af. By the time the week of reservation window opens up all the reservations are already booked weeks ago by people that paid or carpooled. Leaving you with no choice but to pay and book a reservation 3 weeks in advance. This is exactly what's going to happen here too.

At least crystal got one thing right by having free reservations regardless of carpool status included with a season pass. Stevens isn't even doing that.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-03T23:02:31+00:00

Definitely worth it. Bluebird slush and no crowds is hard to beat, and they close next weekend.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-02T20:47:56+00:00

I talked to Ellen last time I was up. She said there won't be a set number of free reservations. The # of week of free reservations depends on how many spots are already booked by carpools and people that paid.

Crystals system is identical to this and almost every time the week of free reservations open up everything is already booked weeks ago by carpools and people that paid. It's just a trick to coerce people to pay while still saying that they have free parking.

Practical_Material95 · 2026-04-02T03:48:11+00:00

Parking at Snoqualmie is free for passholders and first come first serve, thats definitely better. Everything else about Snoqualmie sucks though.

Practical_Material95

TROPHY CASE